Just Kids
by Thorn of Blood
Summary: I AM GETTING SOME REVIEWS!, so I am changing my summery BECAUSE OTHERWISE IT'S STUPID! This story is about the Marauders school days, the story line has been done to death but I don't care. READ OR BE A RECTANGULAR THING!
1. The First Step Into The Unknown

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Just Kids

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not, I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Author's Note

I never intended to write a MWPP fic, my original plan was to write about what happens after our favourite characters leave Hogwarts. I had a plot and every thing, then OotP came out and chucked all my paperwork down the drain, well not all of it, most of it. So then I thought, this is going to happen every time a new book comes out, stuff that, I'll write a Marauders fanfic till she gets all her books written and published. 

So here I am writing this. If all goes as planned this will be the first in a long line of fanfics, but I have to get through this first, wish me luck. My updating may be somewhat sporadic (I write a lot but I can't type for toffee) but please bear with me, I will try.

Well, on with the story.

The First Step Into The Unknown

The Hogwarts Express chugged slowly into Platform 9 ¾. The station's only occupant, a rather chubby little boy with a pointed nose and watery eyes, stared at the huge red steam engine in awe. He was sitting on a trunk surrounded by quite a few miscellaneous items, among them a rat squeaking in a cage and a bag full of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans splitting at the seams. Several rather embarrassing items of clothing were sticking out of the battered trunk's various nooks and crannies. Spare quills, a comb and a large bottle of a slightly off-green, frothy mixture labelled "Cough Medicine Home Brewed", were sticking out of a large lumpy bag at his feet. Definite signs of a frantic mother's last desperate attempt to make sure that her little baby was sufficiently prepared for the perils of boarding school. 

Peter jumped as his mother bustled over, having just come through the barrier that separated the magical station from the Muggle one. Mrs Pettigrew was a small woman with the same sharp nose as her son. Her eyes were also rather watery, but this was from suppressed tears. She gave him a big hug, then started doing all the things mothers do to their children before a big event, smoothing hair, straightening collars, talking all the while.

"Now I've talked to that nice lady with the sweet trolley and she has promised to keep an eye on you for me. She is to see that you get enough to eat, I don't want you to come back home and be all skin and bone. You are to eat good solid meals, get a full eight hours' sleep every night; I know how exciting Hogwarts is but I don't want you gallivanting around at all hours of the night. Try not to get in with the wrong crowd, do your homework, and study hard. If you need to talk face to face I've packed some Floo Powder, otherwise just owl me. Remember, I will be very proud of you whatever house you get into." She hugged him, tears in her eyes, then pulled away, saying "Have a lovely time, dear and remember to change your socks every day!" 

The last bit was shouted over her shoulder as she hurried towards the barrier, which was now partly blocked by people coming the other way. Just before she was lost in the crowd she turned and blew a farewell kiss, then she turned away.

"Bye" said Peter quietly to her retreating back. He wished she could have stayed longer, he had been hoping to wave to her from the train. He looked down at his trunk and sighed, how on earth was he going to get on to the train?

***

Twisting and turning through the jostling mass of people was a small, black haired, bespectacled boy, an owl cage in one hand, a brown book bag in the other and two breathless parents behind him, struggling to keep up. James was very excited, to say the least. He was finally going to Hogwarts, the best school for witchcraft and wizardry in the whole, entire world! He had heard so much about it that he felt he could find his way around blindfolded. This apparently was impossible; everyone he had spoken to had told him that knowing your way around the whole school was unachievable: due to its sheer size, its many magical staircases, passageways and hidden doors that wove themselves into a tangled web of stone and wood until no one, not even Dumbledore, could always be sure of the way to go. The fact that everything which wasn't nailed down moved didn't help matters.

Despite these doom-laden warnings, James was quite confident that he would find and memorise every room, gargoyle and password by the end of the year. This was just one of the many dreams that he intended to fulfil at Hogwarts. The others included winning the Quidditch House Cup at least three times, getting into Gryffindor and last, but definitely not least, playing more pranks, jokes and tricks than any student in the history of the school.

Lawrence and Emma Potter screeched to a halt, just in time to avoid crashing into their son, who had stopped his mad dodging about to stare at the train in awe.

"Quite a sight," said James' father quietly, "like a ruby dragon wreathed in smoke."

"Just waiting to pounce on you and gobble you up!" laughed James' mum, sweeping him up into a bone-crushing hug.

"Emma," her partner said seriously, "this is a pivotal moment in James' life, one that is the beginning of his career as a wizard."

"Yes dear, and you're spoiling it" said Emma in mock seriousness, releasing her choke hold on her son, who promptly fell down on the floor and pretended to die, then got up when he realised no one was watching. 

His parents were too wrapped up in their mock argument and the rest of the station was too busy saying goodbye to each other with various levels of weeping and wailing. He was glad his parents weren't the clingy type, they were taking his impending departure with their usual attitude. When your emotions threaten to overwhelm you bicker. Unlike a tawny-haired boy's parents, who were both hugging their extremely scared-looking kid, they had some self-respect.

"Oh lighten up!"

The Potters often had these conversations. Lawrence was a writer/inventor/researcher and as such had his head in the clouds half the time. Emma had made it her life's work to bring him back down to earth. Their personalities were poles apart, but some how their marriage worked and it had resulted in James and his brother Edward, eight years older. They both had the brilliance of their father and their mother's sense of humour.

This love of a joke had resulted in Emma packing a small box at the bottom of her son's trunk containing the main tools of a prankster's trade: a bag of dungbombs; a number of tightly-stoppered bottles, the contents of which, correctly used, would produce a variety of highly amusing affects; also a small magically-powered mouse and a very thick book entitled "A Marauder's Guide to Mischief" by Renegade Rabblesby. This year was going to be good!

"James". A hand on his shoulder jolted him out of his reverie. He turned round to meet his father's clear blue eyes staring at him from behind black-rimmed glasses.

"Yes?" He just knew his dad was going to say something very serious and philosophical. Something that Potters had said to their sons since the dawn of time.

"My father said this to me when I left for Hogwarts and now I am going to tell you". "I was right", thought James and resigned himself to a lecture. Lawrence lent closer and whispered "Have fun, but don't get caught".

Mr Potter pushed a soft, badly-wrapped package into his sons hands. James' face split into a huge grin, he knew what was under the brown paper, a cloak that he had been longing to get his hands on ever since he could understand what it was and what could be done with it. He placed it carefully in his bag, then dropped both bag and cage, then threw his arms around his dad's neck.

"Thanks", he whispered.

"No problem", Laurie murmured, hugging his son tightly.

"Hey! Aren't I included in this hugging spree?" James dropped to the floor and was promptly smothered by his mother's exuberant hug.

"We'll miss you!" 

"No, we won't," his father snorted. "House will be a lot quieter with him away."

"Laurie!" she was starting to sound slightly choked up "James doesn't need us pushing him away..."

"Oh mum!" James pulled away. "Don't go all weepy on me, I'll be back for Christmas!"

"Who's crying?" Emma gave him a slightly soggy smile.

"Now, who's spoiling the moment?" asked her husband dryly. "Off you go, James, before your mother floods the station."

James gave one last round of hugs, then climbed on to the train, the whistle gave a shriek and started its laborious progress out of the station. James lent out the window and waved an energetic goodbye to his rapidly receding parents. 


	2. Wishing I Was SomeoneSomewhere Else Enti...

****

Just Kids

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not, I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Also, the idea for the trunk comes from The Luggage, it belongs to Terry Pratchet. 

Wishing I Was Someone/Somewhere Else Entirely

Remus Lupin stared out of the window into a sea of faces, all except for a select few were smiling and waving to their departing loved ones. People who weren't smiling included a cluster of Blacks who seemed to think that showing any emotion other than icy superiority was beneath them, a tall horse-faced girl at the back of the crowd who wore an expression of mingled disgust and fury and his parents who's faces mirrored his own. They were hopeful, scared, bemused and thankful, with a bit of "I am going to miss you" and "Is this a dream" thrown in for good measure. The Lupins hadn't thought they were going to be here today.

His father managed a small smile and a wave but his mother just stared up at him, and her face spoke a thousand words. On the platform they had clung to one another, desperate for something solid, in what seemed to be a dream. Now, looking down on her from the train, she seemed wispy, fragile, as though she would snap at any moment. His dad didn't look much better, the Black patriarch kept shooting him contemptuous glances.

Remus was almost glad when a commotion at the gate drew his attention away from his parents, a tall, athletic girl with short brown hair was pushing her way through the mass of people or rather her trunk on legs was. Just then the train gave a shudder and with a screech from its whistle they were off.

"No!" the girl exclaimed and ran faster, the trunk pumping its little legs to keep up. at first it looked like she wasn't going to make it, the train was gaining speed and she was beginning to look puffed. Then a door opened at the end of the train and a hand was extended towards the girl. she looked very thankful and put on an extra burst of speed, reached for the hand, grabbed at it once, twice then caught it. She was pulled in gasping for breath, her magic trunk gave an odd little hop and neatly landed in the train. An ear-splitting cheer went up from the audience. From what Remus could see the girl had just given a bow. The train was almost out of the station, she had been very lucky.

The little performance seemed to have cheered up his parents though, they were clapping along with the rest. In that moment he would of given anything to be like her, to be able to make his family smile. Their house didn't have much laughter in it now. it used to until a full moon night in August 7 years ago when Romulus had died and Remus had received a scar that would mark him for life in more ways then one.

Now every month he became a monster that full grown wizards were afraid of. On the night of the full moon he was locked in a sturdy shed at the bottom of their garden. All the windows and doors were locked, the tall gate at the entrance was barred and the high walls that separated the Lupins from the rest of the world were checked for holes. The fiend that Remus became had been know to escape from the hut and he couldn't bear the thought of the brute getting out a killing someone.

Remus didn't have any friends, the only people he talked to apart from his parents were the Healers at St Mungo's after a particularly bloody night. He was cut of from the outside world by more than walls, where ever he went he was dogged suspicion, prejudice and mistrust. No parent would want their child with a werewolf, who knows what might happen.

School had at first been out of the question. How would they control the beast? What if one of the students was bitten or killed? Armando Dippet had been very insistent, no werewolves in my school! Then Dippet had died and Albus Dumbledore was made headmaster. Dumbledore had contacted them almost as soon as he was appointed. Mrs Lupin had framed the letter and hung it in front of her bed, for Headmaster Dumbledore believed that everyone should have an equal chance to learn magic, this policy included Remus.

He should have been jumping for joy, but even though he was going to Hogwarts, had his Headmasters complete trust and would soon be meeting people his own age. He couldn't feel normal or happy, he was still a monster and if his peers ever found out… Life sucks, thought Remus, especially if your me.

***

Slumped in the corner of a Slitherin filled carriage was another boy who was not loving his life, especially since it included Belatrix Black, cousin and mortal enemy. She was currently sucking up to some Slitherin sixth-years, she called it making contacts and apparently he was meant to be following her example.

His mother had been very definite about that, Agatha Black was an imposing figure and she had a very loud voice, Sirius was used to her speeches but he didn't think that the surrounding families had been expecting a long talk on his faults, Dumbledore's faults and a lot of insulting views on Muggleborns, half-bloods and blood traitors to see them on their way. When she wasn't insulting three-quarters of the station she was praising Belatrix, who was apparently a model child, well behaved, respectful to her elders, ambitious, eager to please, the list went on but in short everything he wasn't.

Despite being the Blacks first born son and heir, he had grown up hating his family. This had led to hating everything they stood for, so Sirius was now that rare thing, a Black who didn't think that all Muggles should be rounded up and cursed to death, couldn't care less about purity of blood and most importantly at this point in his life would curl up and die if he was sorted in to Slitherin.

So in fact Mrs Black was wrong about Sirius, he was ambitious. He wanted to be blasted of his family tree and become an Auror so he could put his whole family(except for Andromeda) into Askaban. He hungered for that day when he could watch them begging for mercy as the Dementors glided towards them twitching their hoods aside to revel…

Uproarious laughter interrupted his thoughts, Lucious Malfoy had just finished telling an apparently hilarious joke. Of course he had money, so if he had said "Golye stinks" everyone would have cracked a rib laughing. 

"Doesn't Sirius think Lucious' story is funny?" Bellatrix had decided that he was due some taunting "Maybe Sirius thinks that cursing Mudbloods isn't worth a laugh."

"What!" the platinum blonde sixth-year stood up "The Black heir is a blood traitor, he actually thinks that Mudbloods have rights?"

"I thought you were meant to be promoting my interests, dearest cousin." said Sirius sarcastically "I'm sure I heard mother say something like that, she was shouting loud enough, you ought to have heard."

"Oh!" exclaimed Bellatrix moving closer "You actually want me to help you?"

"In your dreams, cuz." sneered Sirius

"With his attitude it's a wonder your family hasn't disowned him." sniggered a burly fifth-year called Kenneth Mulciber.

"Personally I think he should have been drowned at birth," his older cousin Narcissia smirked "but, alas, I couldn't make that decision."

"Keep your mouth shut Cissy or you might find you've bitten of more than you can chew." 

"Don't you threaten my girlfriend!" Malfoy stood up drawing his wand but he was dwarfed by Crabbe and Goyle, who loomed up behind him glaring and cracking their knuckles. Sirius began to feel very small but he had never be one for backing down, in the past this had got him into a lot of trouble, but he ignored his more cautious feelings and stepped into the fray.

"Look, Malfoy can't even threaten a first-year without his two human boulders." he drew his wand "How very Slitherin."

"Where are your goons then?" asked Edward Wilkins "'Cause that's where you'll be going, can't escape your linage."

"To dumb to be in Ravenclaw" a thickset second-year called Rdolphus Lestrange jeered.

"Not very loyal, betraying your family with every sentence you speak." hissed Deride Meliflua, a brown haired girl with poisonous green nails. 

Sirius thought he had seen her before, at the last family get together. Her mother had been talking about the law she was trying to pass that would make Muggle hunting legal, Deride had suggested that they go out and practice. Sirius had then been locked in the cellar for making a derogative comment about her intelligence, so he hadn't really got to know her.

"Sorry, Hufflepuffs out then." he was starting to hate her though.

"I suppose there's always Gryfindor," said Bellatrix in a hushed voice as she circled him "but no, your still a Black, whatever you might think, black to the core."

"Rotten to the core you mean" said Sirius bluntly, Bellatrix laughed sharply.

"I'm looking forward to making your school life hell. You'll have no friends, all the other houses will hate you for being a Black and your own house will hate you for just being you. There'll be curse round every corner, an insult on every ones lips," she put on a comforting expression "but don't be sad, don't worry, holidays are coming soon, you'll be back were you belong, with you family. Won't that be nice. In the meantime though, better get started with that hell-making.

She drew her wand and Sirius laughed. 


	3. Flying Through the Air and Landing on yo...

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not, I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Author's Note

Hi, I am getting _zero _reviews for this fic and that is quite depressing. I think this is a good fic, my sister thinks this is a good fic and elsawriter does to, she hasn't actually reviewed yet but I am sure she will. So this chapter is dedicated to them. Enjoy my silent readers. 

Flying Through the Air and Landing on your Feet 

"You couldn't curse a muggle with his back turned" Sirius jeered

"Maybe, but I've got all these people who _really_ don't like you backing me." she raised her voice to a high falsetto "Poor Sirius, no where to run, can't hide. What _are_ you going to do?"

"Well I could start by telling you exactly what I think about the lot of you. You are a lot of inbreed twerps, who can't see that your petty grievances about the state of the wizarding world are so out of date that they're wearing furs! You think that Muggles are less than animals and that Mudbloods don't deserve their magic. Well guess what? Nobody, except you cares! The people with the "dirty blood" are more than two third of the wizarding population, perfectly pure blood is a rare thing, that doesn't mean anything any way. Half-bloods, Mudbloods, their just as good as you lot at magic. True some aren't great at it, but neither are some of you, look at Crabbe and Goyle for Merlin's sake. They're as pure as anyone here but their so thick they can barely hold a wand the right way, let alone do anything with it. We're all just people, but you lot have your heads shoved so far up you're arses that you just can't see it."

Sirius paused to admire the affect of his words, his audience weren't used to people speaking up for themselves, especially when they were out numbered twenty to one. So for the moment they just stood, stunned but angry looks were beginning to show themselves, time to finish his speech while the going was still good, it did spoil a rant if the ranter was overwhelmed by hexes before he finished.

"After that though, I think I'll just start cursing you."

All hell broke lose, it lasted for some time.

* * *

So far the train journey had been a bit of a disappointment to James. In his parents school stories they had had eventful train rides, meeting and making best friends and worst enemies on the Hogwarts Express. He however had yet to find any of his classmates that weren't a) giggling girls or b) asleep. The girls had been in the first carriage he had ventured into, they had offered to let him stay but he had declined and beaten a hasty retreat. The next few had all been full or occupied by some of the upper years. He had then reached a compartment containing a boy about his age, but he had been fast asleep. James had dumped his stuff there and rested for a while, but now he was off again, looking for people, preferably ones were exciting and who shared his liking for pranks.

His wish was granted when the door he was about to open exploded outwards, expelling a boy dressed in his Hogwarts robes, with much flailing of limbs he flew through the air, landing right on top of a, quite startled, James.

They fell to the floor with a crash as a roar of laughter emitted from the burst door. Disregarding James the boy leapt to his feet shouting insults, ready to charge back in to the fray. Someone inside shouted a spell and the door slammed shut.

He continued to verbally abuse the door for a while, then he kicked it, hard. Of course you cant do that to solid wood without getting some feed back but it took a few seconds for the pain to register, during which time he retrieved his wand from the floor. Then he dropped it and clutched his foot. He hopped round the hall for about five minutes, during which time James vocabulary was greatly increased.

"Ahem," James interrupted his swearing "little help here?"

"Oh, sorry" the boy pulled James to his feet. He brushed himself down then extended his hand. 

"James Potter" the boy hesitated then took t6he proffered hand.

"Sirius" he paused then continued "Sirius Blake"

* * *

That was possibly one off the most stupid things Sirius had ever done and that was including the time he had tried to turn his grandfather into a goldfish so he could have a pet, (He had got in to huge amounts of trouble for that little scheme, especially since the old man had nearly died from lack of oxygen before the adults had transfigured him back). Not only had he just lied to a potential friend and thus forcing him to invent a whole new life for himself, James was going to find out his true name as soon as he was called up to be Sorted. Lying when there was no chance you weren't going to be discovered was a very idiotic thing to do.

He had panicked though; the Potters were a pureblood family that could trace their line back even further then the Blacks, if they wanted to, which they didn't. The Potters were like that, they didn't really care about how far their line went back or how pure their blood was, in his families view they were defiantly blood traitors, very Gryfindor blood traitors as well. One of their ancestors, a potter named Allsy, saved Eric Gryfindors life in some huge battle thus linking the houses by a life dept. Gryfindor took the dept very seriously and promised that from that time onwards the Potters would always be protected by his line. 

So when Godric Gryfindor left home to help found Hogwarts he left his castle in the capable hands of his friend Bosley Potter. From then on the Potters were the trusted guardians of Fort Leo and the surrounding area. Even after the Gryfindor line died out in the sixteen hundreds they continued to tend to the castle and its grounds. They never moved into the castle though, instead they resided in The Potty, the traditional home of the Potters. Of course the house had been enlarged and refurbished since the days when it was the abode of simple village craftsmen but still, living in a house of ordinary size when you could be residing in one of the oldest castles in Britain. It was beyond Sirius, still they seemed to be happy with their lot in life and they had, apparently, amassed quite a large fortune through the simple method of not spending much.  

Sirius had never actually met one before, with his family it was hard to meet anyone let alone a Potter, but he knew what they tended to look like. They were short, mostly wore glasses and tended towards black or dark hair that was always very messy. This one had hazel eyes, a longish and a cheeky grin. Sirius liked him immediately.

"So what was that all about?" James asked, indicating the now closed carriage door.

"Oh, they really don't like me." Sirius said vaguely.

"Right, so they what? Dragged then cursed you out." He inquired sceptically.

"Something like that." keep it simple and as close to the truth as you can he reminded himself "My parents know their parents, they think great another small child to brain wash. I make a few comments, they realise their mistake and help me out the door with a few well-aimed curses. I managed to make Malfoys hair turn red though, so I guess it was worth it." James grinned at that and seemed to accept his story.

"Well since you have no place to go, come and share my carriage. Only other person there is asleep, so he's not exactly a bundle of laughs…" he shrugged "I could use some company, care to join me?"

"Sure," Sirius answered casually but inside he was exultant "here give me a hand with this trunk."               


	4. Getting to Know You, Getting to Like You

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Author's Note

I have just been looking back over this fic and there are so many mistakes it is unbelievable! I have updated Chapter Three; hopefully there are no omissions in it. Thanks to elsawriter for her review and if I have any silent readers out there could they please review? Reviews make me happy and encourage me to face my fears and brave my typewriter to give you more chapters. 

Getting to Know You, Begining to Like You

James' silent companion was still dead to the world when they returned, dragging Sirius' baggage behind them. They dumped it in a corner then collapsed tired and slightly sweaty. There was silence for a while broken only by their harsh breathing, then Sirius spoke.

"I've just realised something."

"What?"

"We didn't have to drag that here after all." James groaned

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I didn't remember before, one of my cousins told me," he explained "the trunks get left when we leave the train and they turn up later at the foot of your bed." James groaned again, then brightened.

"If we had left it there then your "friends" might have cursed it or something."

"Or something." Sirius muttered darkly, but he to felt much better "So…you play Quiditch at all?"

"Definitely!" was the enthusiastic reply.

After that the conversation flowed freely. They covered a wide range of subjects, Quiditch, James played Chaser, Sirius Beater and they both supported the Montrose Magpies. After a heated discussion on the merits of their new Keeper Dizzy White they moved on to their families. James was quite happy to chat about them, mentioning every thing from his great-aunts mental health to the time his father got slightly tipsy at a New Years party and decided it would be a great idea to borrow a neighbours car so they could go see some shooting stars from the top of a nearby hill.

His dad had crashed the car and he and his friend had spent the rest of the night trying desperately to fix it before dawn, they had managed it but in the process had managed to invent a car that didn't need _peeterol_ to make it go just coffee. Their neighbour had been very angry for several weeks; it had taken a new car and a lot of money from his insurance company to appease him. James' mother still teased his father about it, but she couldn't deny that he had got the best out of the whole affair, he had picked up the car from the place it had been dumped, cleaned it up a bit and sold it to the youngest Weasley son who apparently had a fascination with Muggle stuff.

Sirius on the other hand was very closed mouthed about his family, he said he didn't get along with most of them and could they please change the subject. The Sorting was brought up and talked about with a sort of fearful dread, neither of them knew what exactly was going to take place. James' parents had been very closed mouthed about it, insisting that not knowing what it consisted of was a tradition that had been going on for hundreds of years and anyway they didn't want to ruin the surprise. Sirius' cousins had on the other hand had been all to willing to tell him what happened, but he was inclined not to believe them since their stories became even more horrifying and bloody with each retelling. Both of the boys were determined to get into Gryfindor, James because most of his family had been in it and Sirius because none of his family had.

At that point the trolley came round and the conversation turned to more mundane things, such as how many Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans you could stuff in your mouth at once and the most disgusting flavour bean they had tasted. James' worst had been compost flavoured and Sirius had briefly had a mouthful of dragon dung beans before he had spat them out in to his cousin's face.

"Bet she was pleased about that" commented James.

"She tricked me into eating them in the first place," he barked out a laugh "spent ages, I bet, gathering them all up and to reward her for her labour she gets them right back at her."

This sent James off down memory lane again, this story involved his brother, the Slitherin Quidditch team and a huge amount of Dungsters (boxes that when opened spewed dung in your face)…

It was a few hours later and they had reached the "sticky" stage of the journey. The time when all the food you want to eat has run out, your lack of sleep the night before is just starting to catch up with you and you can't think of any thing else to say to your travelling companion, when this happens a lot of people start to stare out the window suddenly finding the passing countryside absolutely fascinating.

James was doing that, staring aimlessly out the window, Sirius however didn't find mountains at all interesting, so he was bouncing cabbage flavoured beans off the sleeping boys head. Throw, hit his nose, 10 points. Throw, hit his left eye, 10 points. Throw, hit his forehead, 5 points. Throw, hit his right ear, 20 points.

"This is ridiculous!" he exclaimed suddenly "I'm on 185 points and he still hasn't woken up."

"He's dead," said James flatly "got so excited at the thought of going to Hogwarts that he had a heart attack."

"I doubt it." Sirius went over to the comatose body and prodded it, it snorted and turned away.

"A reaction," Sirius exclaimed exultantly "he's going to wake up."

They waited a while but all that happened was an abundance of nothing.

"Right," a determined expression appeared his face "he will wake up. Got any fireworks?" James suddenly took an interest in the proceedings.

"Think so, I'll just check." He searched around inside his bag and after a lot of rummaging triumphantly pulled out a rather small, crumpled looking firework.

"Is that all?"

"'Fraid so."

"Ah well, here goes." He brought his wand to the end of the firework and opened his mouth to mutter an incantation. That was as far as he got though because at that moment the door burst open and a voice yelled out in outrage.

"Don't you dare!" Sirius for the second time that day went flying through the air. He landed on the other side of the carriage in a crumpled heap and lay their momentarily stunned. He peered blearily up at his vanquisher expecting to see some sort of vengeance demon or at least a seventh year but no, the spell light cleared to reveal…

Sorry about that cliff hanger but if you think a bit you can probably guess who it is.


	5. Raging Red Haired Hurricanes

**

* * *

Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Author's Note

I can't believe how long it's been since I updated, I can only say that I have been really busy with exams and things. I am sorry but I just haven't had time to type. Anyway here it is, hope you enjoy!

**Raging Red Haired Hurricanes**

A small girl with flashing green eyes and a mass of auburn curls that looked like a hurricane had just been through them. She had the pale skin that redheads often have but her nose supported a surprisingly small amount of freckles. It was a very proportional nose, not to small, not to big and with just the right amount of turn up at the end to make it cute but not enough to make her look like a pig. Her Hogwarts robes swirled impressively around her slight form leaching away the little colour her face had so that her hair shone like a beacon at the top of a colourless tower. She was an impressive sight especially when viewed from the floor, Sirius' current position. James seemed to share this sentiment and he slipped to the floor so he could admire he better his eyes never leaving her face. She ignored the thump that her new admirer made as he hit the floor instead choosing to pursue her still dazed quarry.

James was dazed as well but in a different way to his friend, as an eleven year old he hadn't had much experience with the emotion known as a crush, in the past it had meant pulling Emily Bones' pigtails but this… something in his subconscious had awoken and was telling him quite firmly to impress this girl by any means possible.

So enamoured was he that the fact that the object of his affections looked likely to string up Sirius didn't impress its self on his conscious until she was nearly half way across the carriage. Being the loyal friend he was he decided to stop her and, busily composing some appropriate words of greeting in his head, grabbed her by the arm.

She spun round and James was confronted by a pair of emerald eyes that drove all coherent thought from his mind to be replaced by the sort of incoherency that makes you say the first thing that comes in to your mind, unfortunately for him it was the shape of her eyes that attracted his attention.

"Your eyes look like nuts." he blurted out, then realised the implications as the girl's anger reached new heights.

"What!" she seemed to be on the verge of apoplexy.

"Not bad nuts, good nuts, with shells!" he cursed the mad impulse that had caused him to utter that thought as he searched for the appropriate word.

"Got it! Your eyes look like almonds!" he spoke this with a certain degree of triumph but she was not impressed, instead of thanking him for the compliment she slapped his hand away and turned back towards Sirius, who had just gotten up and was watching James flounder with a certain degree of amusement. This changed to defensiveness when the girl/hellion confronted him.

"Just what did you think you were doing?"

"Well you see," James attempted to explain "we've been sitting here…"

"Minding our own business," Sirius interjected.

"That's right, for quite some time and since he," he pointed at the cause of the discussion "hasn't stirred a bit we were starting…"

"To get a bit worried. So after careful thought and deliberation…"

"Wedecidedtowakehimupwiththefireworks" gabbled James.

"It was purely through concern for his welfare," said Sirius smoothly "that we even considered…"

"Tormenting a sleeping boy who has done nothing to either of you." She looked at them both with disgust "You should be ashamed of yourselves, can't you see he's sick."

James looked at the boy, now that she mentioned it there was a look of long illness about him, an aura of permanent worry and many sleepless nights tossing and turning. His face was too thin and there were shadows under his eyes that looked like livid bruises on his too pale skin. His hair was thin and limp hanging round his head like bits of tawny brown spaghetti, in it James could spot at least one strand of silver, the boy was going grey before his time. He looked like that picture of Darrell Potter just after he had returned from Germany in 1936, battle weary and curse scared.

Sirius hadn't been looking at the face but at the arm of the boy, he had noticed some thing peeking out of the bottom of his sleeve and he couldn't quite work out what it was. Finally, curiosity overwhelming him he darted forward and pulled up the boy's shirt cuff to reveal a scar that encircled his whole arm. In the gathering dusk the bite marks seemed slightly luminous, pale even in comparison to the surrounding skin. The scar tissue was thick and ragged, the skin around it had puckered up and looked slightly blistered. It was a nauseating sight.

A gasp of horror escaped from their red-haired companion and James let out a low whistle.

"That must have hurt!"

"No kidding," Sirius agreed, "wonder what sort of monster did that?"

"We could ask him." James reached out to shake the boy's shoulder but was stopped by the girl grabbing his hand with a vicelike grip.

"How could you?" she shoved his hand away, disgusted. "Even after you've seen the condition he is in you still want to satisfy your own curiosity at his expense. You two have no respect for people's rights, no self-discipline and not an ounce of common courtesy. You make me sick."

James exchanged exasperated looks with Sirius who indicated at the door with his head, James sighed and nodded. His personal feelings towards her were just as admiring as before but he would now prefer to look upon her from afar, preferably out of the range of her insults.

"Well," Sirius smirked, "we wouldn't want you to throw up all over our nice clean carriage."

She snorted.

"Clean?" she snorted, "I've seen cleaner dustbins." James had to admit it; on that count she was right. Several hours of the boys' presence had had a noticeably bad impact on the compartment. Sweet wrappers were scattered all over the floor, some of Sirius' socks had managed to migrate to far corners of the room, both sets of school books had been used for a more dangerous version of a pillow and James' owl, Tempest, had escaped to perched in a high up corner occasionally depositing smelly packages onto the area below him. Under her derogatory gaze James became very interested in the intricate way his shoelaces were tied and Sirius nervously shoved some of the debris under a seat. Then he recovered himself and smiled suavely at her, she scowled back, arms crossed with her wand dangling from one hand.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," the girl scowled at him more ferociously then ever "we don't want your stomach troubled on our accounts."

"It would trouble our consciences you see." agreed James in an appropriately woeful tone.

"So I really think that it would be best for all us present here…"

"If you leave immediately." She was apparently to busy forming an appropriately scathing counter attack to notice that the two boys had placed themselves in prime positions to force her out of the carriage. James grabbed her right arm, Sirius her left and together they frogmarched her swiftly from the room. Her struggling and extremely vocal protests did not avail her, she was dumped out side the carriage and informed that should she come again they would be out, so she shouldn't ring or knock, just go…quickly.

The door closed on their triumphant grins and the girls look of mingled frustration, anger and surprise.

**Well what do you think, opinions and criticisms are welcome and encouraged**.


	6. Your Journeys Just Begun

** **

Just Kids

A Marauders Fic

Summary

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not, I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note

I have finally got this chapter out I can't believe that it took me two months, it's awful. In my defence I have to say that a) I had the dreaded disease writers block, you would not believe how much trouble this chapter and the next one was to write and b) I didn't have enough reviews to get me out of my summer holiday haze.

Anyway this is the chapter when MWPP _finally_ get to Hogwarts, I am sure you are all saying things along the lines of "Good grief it took her four chapters, JKR only took one.", what can I say she only had one character, I had to herd all four of them and believe me it takes some doing.

There are quite a lot of OC's in this chapter and the next but hopefully no Mary Sue's have slipped past my net. Enjoy.

It Takes All Sorts

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here." A man stood in the middle of the dark, wet platform holding a lantern bigger than Remus' head with a hand the size of his mum's turkey platter. The man was, big, huge would have been a better word, he dwarfed every one else on the platform, especially the rather nervous looking group of first years that had already answered his call and were now clustered round him waiting for instructions.

Remus, fighting against the tide of older students going the other way, was glad of a point to steer for, Peter, the small boy he had rescued from the slimy haired kid wasn't so sure.

"He looks fierce."

"We are on a crowded platform he is not going to eat us."

" Hurry up there!" the big man bearded face turned to them "C'mon, follow me - anymore firs'-years? Firs'-years follow me!"

He led them down a very steep and narrow path that twisted and turned through a dense evergreen forest, it was unusually quiet, the only sound was the crunch of feet on pebbles and the mutterings of those unfortunate enough to miss their step.

They turned a particularly sharp bend in the road and suddenly there it was, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the most magnificent sight Remus had ever seen. It seemed to float on the cloud of mist that covered the lake like a blanket, the castle was covered in a million tiny lights, as though it's towers and spires had scraped the stars from the sky, the radiance illuminated the lake making the mist glow.

Their procession came to a halt at the sight, Remus was awe-struck and he wasn't the only one, the whole group seemed stunned. Peter let out a squeak of excitement, a boy with a fringe that his mother obviously thought was cute sat down and he heard the girl behind whisper, "We get to live in that!".

Their leader however hadn't stopped, he called them down to the shore where a small fleet of boats awaited them.

"No more'n four to a boat! An no funny business, yeh don' want a detention before yeh even get t' Hogwarts."

For some reason the two black-haired boys at the front found this funny, they snickered and elbowed each other in the ribs, much to the disgust of a girl with auburn curls who sniffed and chose a boat as far away from them as possible.

Remus didn't particularly want to share with them either, the memory of waking up to their curious faces and his mad dash for the door when they started questioning him was burned on to his brain with a brand of intense horror and embarrassment. The fact that during his top speed exit of the carriage he had knocked over the boy who had been going to curse Peter made him feel only slightly better about the whole affair.

Peter was edging towards the boys boat, obviously hoping to be asked in, but he followed Remus with only a few backward glances when he headed towards the end boat containing the redhead and her friend, a girl with bobbed chestnut hair who looked vaguely familiar.

The boats were loaded up without to much fussing about, the only delay was when four boys tried to crowd into a boat that already contained a white faced girl with thick black hair and a regal demeanour. This resulted in a small scuffle and the smallest boy being sent to a nearby boat, the girl didn't seem at all concerned or surprised she seemed to except this as her due and the only sign that she even noticed this attention was a very small smile of absolute smugness.

"Everyone in?" their giant of a leader had squeezed himself into the front boat "Right then - FORWARD!"

As the boats gilded forward the gleaming mist engulfed them making it almost impossible for Remus to see his companions, let alone the other boats. The fog muffled all sound making him feel as though they were lost, cut off from the world around them, stuck forever in this eerie world of white. Of course the sensible part of his mind told him that the boats were kept together by magic and their inner compasses were unlikely to be confused by a bit of mist. Unfortunately the more credulous brain cells did not want to listen and instead were insisting that they were lost forever.

"Are you OK?"

Something of this internal struggle must have shown on his face the girl with auburn curls had lent forward to check on him .

"Fine, I'm fine." Remus stuttered, she looked sceptical but no more questions were asked.

Suddenly a wall of ivy loomed up out of the mist, it was right in front of them and for a second Remus was sure that they were going to crash but when a cry of "Heads down!" came from up ahead, he saw that the ivy hid a break in the cliffs face that the little boats could pass through. The cleft became a long tunnel that eventually opened up into a sort of underground harbour. The boats beached themselves easily and everyone clambered out, the giant like man gave each boat a swift search revealing someone's old quill and a chocolate frog card. The quill wasn't claimed but the card was eagerly seized by a gangling boy with bulging eyes who muttered something about it being "one of a kind".

"He's deluding himself," said the other girl from his boat "I've got at least five of Agrippa."

"That's a chocolate frog card?" the small red head asked, she was probably a Muggle born, he couldn't imagine someone from a magical family not knowing that sort of thing.

"Yep, apparently quite rare in the land of the Pom's. I'm intending to make some very profitable deals with mine, add some British cards to my collection."

She probably continued but at that point they came to the end of the tunnel and in the squash to get onto the lawn Remus lost sight of them.

The blanket of mist over the lake had grow and spilled out to cover the grounds the first years were led through a cloud that only reached up to their ankles. It was very disconcerting for Remus, not being able to see his feet or the ground as he walked increased the likelihood of tripping over unseen objects lying in his way. Fortunately the grass was well kept and obstacle free they reached the huge front doors with no mishaps.

"Everyone here?"

The huge man turned and knocked on the doors three times with his enormous fist.


	7. A Shadow On Your Back

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone, they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not, I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Author's Note

Thank you so much to the people who have been reviewing this fic, I will soon have to change my summary. I am sorry I didn't get this chapter out sooner, but you know school has started and I just haven't had time. Anyway here it is, answers to reviews are at the bottom of the page. Enjoy.

A Shadow On Your Back

The doors opened spilling light and warmth out into the grounds, there was a sudden surge as everyone tried to get in at once, a few people got trampled but that wasn't James' problem. Up until that point he hadn't realized that it was almost freezing outside, the combination of excitement and a good wool cloak had kept him warm, but now he was eager to get inside where his future and a feast awaited him.

The Entrance Hall was huge, a vast room decorated with portraits and tapestries ending in a sweeping marble staircase flanked by four enormous hourglasses, each decorated with the symbol of their house. The room felt familiar to James, at first he couldn't think why, he had heard Edward tales of school from an early age but none of them had been descriptive enough to promote this instant feeling of recognition. He stared around hoping to find the source of his emotion, his eyes fell upon the Gryfindor hourglass and he realized that the Hogwarts Entrance Hall was strikingly similar to the Hall of Fort Leo. Maybe Gryfindor had wanted to make the school feel more like home.

Voices mingled with laughter came from two double doors to the right of them, the flock of first years turned instinctively towards them but a rumble from the back brought them up short.

"Hold your Hippogriff's you lot, Professor Shadow's got t' see you before you go in there." He turned to go "Just wait here till she comes."

As so as he had left the Hall murmurs and whispers broke out among the abandoned eleven year-olds, everyone was very confused, they had not thought that upon entering Hogwarts they would be deserted so everyone felt a bit lost.

"What do you reckons happening?" James asked Sirius, trying to appear unconcerned in front of his friend especially since he seemed to be taking the whole situation in his stride.

"It's Shadows way of welcoming us to the school." Sirius replied shortly, James took back what he had thought about his handling of the situation, the taller boy looked like he was going to be sick.

"I've heard about her, she's meant to be as old as Dumbledore and know every thing about every one because she can go invisible with out any aid from charms or magical items!"

Talking about a prospective teacher seemed to distract Sirius from his stomach problems, he felt that he had been challenged, he should be able to add to James' knowledge of the subject.

"Well I heard that she was raised by Demiguise and they taught her how to disappear." He delivered his speech with the air of one imparting wisdom upon the unworthy. James was just about to respond when he was startled when a voice from just behind his left ear spoke.

"Really dear, I wouldn't believe everything you hear, people are so often wrong." Sirius went greener then he already was and James spun around quickly.

Standing in front of him, despite the fact before she had defiantly not been there a moment before, was some one who could only be Professor Shadow, no one else could look like that. Pale and grey with almost transparent skin she seemed to fade into the background, it would be easy to overlook her, dismiss her from your mind as no more then a shadow. Every thing about her was designed to help you do that, she was a small women and her silvery grey hair fell down her back like an cloak, softening her lines and helping her blend in. Her skin was very pale, like a baby bird's fresh from its egg, it made her look frail, as though a healthy sneeze could snap her in two. She didn't seem to mind the fact that the two boys had been talking about her, in fact she seemed amused, there was a smile on her face and a sparkle in her misty grey eyes as she swept past them.

"Follow me" she said in a quiet voice.

They were led into a small stone chamber to the side of the Great Hall's doors where they immediately congregated in the middle. Professor Shadow closed the doors and turned to address them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry first years, I am Professor Shadow, Deputy Head and Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am hear to tell you a bit about Hogwarts tradition before you take part in one of our most ancient traditions. There are four houses…"

James tuned out the rest of the speech, most of it he already knew, if you are bad you will lose house points. Well James didn't intend to get caught carrying out all the dastardly deeds he intended to perform and he would be hailed as a genius for coming up with such great pranks. He lost himself in pleasant daydreams for the rest of Shadows speech only awaking from his imaginings when Sirius nudged him, Shadow had left the room.

Contrary to normal procedure no one started up a conversation when she went, every one was too busy contemplating their own worst imaginings to worry about other peoples. Of course there was still noise, it isn't possible for a room to be silent when it is filled with eleven year-olds in varying stages of fright. A tall girl with blonde pigtails was sobbing in a corner, one boy seemed to be giving himself a pep talk and another's teeth were chattering so loud that the sound was echoing around the small room. There were those locked in silent fear, people shivered, shook and turned all kinds of strange colours. Some people tried to hind their fear, others just didn't seem worried at all in fact a girl with a clever face and hair pulled back in a messy bun had got out a book and was busy reading, oblivious to the world around her.

James wished he could be so unconcerned but the fact was that he was petrified, Edwards story about the rigors of the Sorting actually seemed plausible now that he was about to go through it for himself and since it had included an encounter with a Graphorn, his brother had claimed to still have the scars but had declined to show him. James would have quizzed Sirius on the prospect of going one to one with a very dangerous creature with two very sharp horns but he was busy trying to ignore the black haired girl and her followers who for some reason seemed to find him very funny. His friend had a very strange look on his face, something between anger, disgust and fear.

So he just stood, staring at nothing desperately wishing to be home and safe. Afterwards he proclaimed loudly that he hadn't been in the least bit frightened but at that moment his jokes and laughter failed him, James couldn't think of anything that would make a Graphorn spearing him funny. So when Professor Shadow returned he was literally a bundle of nerves held together by the fact that Edward would laugh himself silly if James ran away from his own Sorting.

Well, what do you think? Review and tell me.

I have decided that since people are actually reviewing I am going to answer them.

Thanks to

Alycia

Elsawriter: Yes Bellatrix is the girl on the boat and yes she is in their year. But since I started writing this I've changed my mind, there was a remark in OotP that Sirius hadn't seen her since he was 15, so I am going to have to think about that when writing future years but for now yes she is staying.

Mirkwood: A LotR fan I see

Celebrean: Please do review again

Justarandomperson: I have

Hilde: thanks Sirius is really difficult, I think that quite a few fic writers portray him as too idiotic so I am trying to make him darker

cascadingmagic: Your review was really encouraging

Amalynne O'hara: Thanks for making me feel that there are other people out there experiencing the same difficulties as me, also for your **3** lovely long reviews and your blessing. Yes I am English, it says so in my bio, not that I expect you to read it and I really can't help using my vocabulary in their thoughts, I thank you for your comment and I have tried to improve.

marauding-siriusly: Here's your chapter, I really didn't think the last one was a cliff hanger but maybe it is for the person reading it.

Comments and criticisms are appreciated and fingers crossed that I finish the next chapter before the Christmas holidays. Happy Half Term!


	8. A Sirius Moment

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone; they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note 

In this chapter the Marauders are finally sorted and there's a surprise in store for James.

Hope you enjoy it!

A Sirius Moment 

Sirius had never thought of himself as a coward, he felt that you had to be brave to survive a lifetime at No. 12 Grimauld Place where every person, creature and thing hates your guts, but now he was showing all the symptoms of acute terror, clammy hands, racing pulse and a strange feeling in his stomach that made him wish that he hadn't eaten so many sweets on the train. It took all of Sirius' willpower to force himself to follow Professor Shadow and the rest of the new first years into the Great Hall.

A thousand pairs of eyes stared at them, some welcoming siblings or friends, some calculating and some just plain curious. Sirius felt hostile stares emitting from the Slytherin table, Malfoy and his cronies had obviously been gossiping about the Mudblood loving Black. Of course knowing inter-house politics some of the owners of the stares would be positively gleeful about the prospect of a renegade Black joining them in Slytherin, anything that showed weakness was certain to be exploited and he was defiantly a flaw in the Black clan's defences. The burden of all those gazes weighed down on him as he desperately searched the crowd for a friendly face, there was no one on the Gryfindor table or at the Huffelpuff but in the mass of students at the Ravenclaw table he spotted Andromeda, the one person who could understand exactly what he was going through.

Andromeda always looked much smaller then she really was, mostly because she was constantly squashed between two much bigger people, when her family visited the Black family home it was her sisters that flanked her. The adults pretended that it stemmed from a need to protect their "weaker sister, you know I'm not surprised she was Sorted in to Ravenclaw, off in her own little world half the time, or her nose in a book, I mean she just wouldn't have survived." Sirius however knew that Narcissia and Belatrix's felt only contempt for Andromeda and that the only reason they inflicted them selves with her presence was to prevent the two white sheep of the Black family from plotting together. Despite their almost constant supervision Sirius had found an ally in Andromeda and her visits had been the best things that ever happened at No.12 Grimmauld Place. When Andromeda saw that he'd found her she gave him a little wave and in return Sirius managed a weak smile.

His respite was short lived though, as the new first years continued up the aisle between the tables his fears about the upcoming ceremony returned to haunt him. Unusually they didn't contain worries about what the Sorting would consist of or what the result would be, instead Sirius was dreading the time when Professor Shadow would read out his name, revealing to James not only his true heritage but the fact that he had lied about it. Soon, he thought glumly, their budding friendship would turn to contempt and hate from James, especially if he was Sorted into Slytherin.

He backed away quickly from that thought, even when life at Grimauld Place reached rock bottom he had never really believed that fate would be cruel enough to force him in to Slytherin but now with the Sorting staring him in the face he wasn't so sure…

The Hall had gone silent, eyes that had once been staring at the new additions were now looking at a three legged stool on which sat a very battered, old and dirty pointed hat. Sirius couldn't see the attraction but none the less his eyes were drawn to it; the only thing in the hall that didn't seem to be judging him. Then to his slight surprise (he had lived all his life in the wizarding world) the Hat began to sing.

Sirius was not remotely interested in the song; he had never been one for poems and this one didn't tell him anything he didn't know already. The story had been one of his bedtime stories when he was very young, it was the tale of how the Founders had got together and started Hogwarts. Of course, _his_ story had been told from Salazar's point of view, how he had tried to protect the school from the dangers of bringing in Muggle born children, the merits of Slytherin house above the rest and the way he had reluctantly left the school when it became apparent that he couldn't convince his colleagues to see his side of the argument. He found that he much preferred the Hats version, even if he did find it slightly boring it was a relief that there none of the stories he had heard from his cousins had turned out to be true.

As the Hat fell silent every one applauded, it bowed to the four houses then returned to its comatose state; Professor Shadow stepped forward unrolling a long parchment scroll.

"When I call out your name you will step forward and place the Hat on your head, it will sort you into your house."

Sirius began to inwardly curse, why did his name have to be Black? Why couldn't it have been Xavier or Zallderford? His name was going to be called out in less then five minutes and then his life would be over, one way or another. Then again if his name hadn't been Black he wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place. Any way he looked at it he was doomed, a hundred metres up without a broom to his name. Even if by some fluke he did get Sorted into Gryffindor there was no way he would be able to convince James to forgive him.

"Black, Belatrix" Damn, there was no one in his whole year with a surname beginning with an A, Merlin!

Belatrix swooped down on the Hat, sank gracefully on to the stool and placed the Hat reverently on her head; the effect was rather spoiled when it slipped down over her ears and eyes. Predictably the Hat yelled out "SLITHERIN" within seconds of it touching her hair; when she emerged from beneath the Hat she was wearing what could only be described as a smirk of absolute triumph, she almost skipped to her table where she was greeted by applause and a discreet hug from her sister.

"Black, Sirius" For a moment he considered pretending that he hadn't heard or running away, even pretending that he was Sirius Blake. On his left side he could feel James turning to stare at him; maybe he was just looking to see the guy with the same last name as his friend or possibly he was beginning to figure it out. Sirius stepped forward, heard James gasp and wanted to curl up, die and be swallowed up by the earth. The walk up to the Hat seemed to take forever, his former friends gaze burned deeper into his back with every step he took and his body felt like it was made out of lead. He pulled the Hat down over his eyes desperate to get away from James' angry, accusing eyes.

_"Well you are in a bit of bother and no mistake; I can safely say though, that you have none of the qualities necessary to go into Slytherin."_

Sirius let a small "Yes" escape him, the Hat seemed amused as it continued in its dry voice.

_Somehow I don't feel that you would have suited it. Gryffindor however, is a perfect match, it will teach you well…perhaps too well…_

The Hat was silent for a while, Sirius was growing more impatient, if Gryffindor was his true home why didn't the Hat hurry up and put him there.

Come on, what are you waiting for Sort me already, Gryffindor, Gryffindor.

_Very well, _GRYFFINDOR!

Sirius was in such a rush to rip the Hat off that he didn't hear its last words of warning.

_On your own head be it._

__

I liked writing this chapter, geting inside Sirius' head is so much fun, the last bit was really dificult though so reveiw and tell me how I did.

Thanks to:

**Amalynne O'hara:** An excellent reveiw, I know I thought that it must have happened in their sixth year too but then I read a very convincing argument at a site called red hen and I really agree with it. You should check out some of the stuff there it is quite controvercial but very thought provoking. Thank you so much for your complement of Sirius I am glad you think I have done him well. You should like this chapter alll Sirius.

**brenngt14**: Thanks, I'll update and you reveiw.

**marauding-siriusly:**Cliffhangers are the sign of either a good writer or a mean writer, you choose which I am.

**mossh:**Thanks


	9. It Takes All Sorts

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone; they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note 

I have decided that as soon as I reach 30 reviews I will change my summary for something that doesn't sound so quite so desperate, I feel that there is no point saying that you have no reviews when you actually have 25! (Sorry 28) Wow I can't believe I have that many, anyway keep reviewing, you guys are great!

This chapter tells of Remus' Sorting and a division at the Gryffindor table. Hope I've got Remus right. I have been meaning to use this title for ages but was hindered in this by the fact that the contents of my chapters keep changing, so in JKR's word "know that this has been" months "in the making", or something along those lines.

It Takes All Sorts

"GRIFFINDOR"

The hall was shocked into complete silence, no one clapped for Sirius Black, the boy that had just emerged from under the Hat, a triumphant grin plastered all over his face. Everyone had been expecting another audition to Slitherin house and now this…it was a surprise to say the least. Quite a few people at the Gryffindor table didn't look to happy, the long standing rivalry between the two houses meant that numerous Gryffindors had been on the receiving end of a curse sent by Narcissia Black or one of her many relations. They weren't sure how they felt having a representative of the Black clan in their house. The Slitherins were absolutely livid; particularly the boy's immediate relatives, the stain on their family's honour would be the subject of discussion over respectable dinner tables for months to come. The black haired girl that had been Sorted before him was giving him a look that could have stopped a rampaging dragon. Remus was surprised that Sirius didn't seem more concerned, if he had been in his place…your not though, whispered the traitorous voice at the back of mind, your in you're your place, _werewolf_.

The silence only lasted about a minute, less then that really but it did drag on, the applause started up at the high table and spread down to the Gryffindor table, for some reason the Ravenclaw table joined in, led by a delicate looking black haired girl. Up at the high table Professor Dumbledore over looked the proceedings with interest and he was the last to stop clapping when the applause died down. Professor Shadow gathered herself together and began calling out names again.

Remus watched with only vague interest, at any other time observing this procession of life would have been fascinating, there were so many people doing so many different things! Further down the line of first years a messy haired boy was scowling fiercely at the new audition to Gryffindor, some pretty girls at the Ravenclaw table were teasing a second year, a muscular Gryffindor was waving at a pouting Hufflepuff and a dull looking Slytherin boy was falling asleep. Every single person in the Hall was contributing to the vast tapestry of social interaction, each and every one a distinctive thread. For so many years he had longed to experience what they took for granted and now that he had it he was wasting it worrying about the stupid Sorting.

He couldn't help it though, being terrified out of your mind must have been catching because his fellow first years fear had him in its grip as well. What if the Hat didn't want to Sort him? What if instead of shouting out a house it shouts out what he really was, a monster, something not fit to be taught, dangerous, keep it away, beast…

"Cokelwick, Karen", the girl who had been reading before, was rather predictably sorted into Ravenclaw.

What had possessed Dumbledore? What security measures could he possibly be taking that would allow him to accept Remus into the school? Would he have to be locked in a cage once a month? How could his dorm mates not notice his continual absences? They were certain to guess and then…

"Dippet, Merridock", a freckled faced, boy with strawberry blond hair was next up, he looked slightly disappointed when he was sorted into Gryffindor.

Would they be sympathetic? The Healers had been, but they had seen the damage he did to himself when he transformed, eleven year old boys would certainly not understand; how could they when werewolves had been portrayed as the bad guys in every bedtime story that involved them. Children from magical families had also been exposed to the continuing hype surrounding the werewolves that escaped from their confines and went rampaging around the countryside. Remus could still remember the terror he had felt when the death of Benny Stricket had resulted in an upsurge of werewolf hunts, the fear every time someone came to the door, the interviews by that Umberige woman. It had been almost a relief when the culprit was caught and sentenced…

"Evens, Lily", the petite red head from his boat was Sorted in to Gryffindor almost immediately, Remus noticed that the boy in glasses stopped glaring at the Gryffindor Black, who was obviously no longer his friend, while she was sorted. Meanwhile the Gryffindor table was practically roaring; she was their third new member out of the first five first years.

Yes, if he was found out there would be no way he would be allowed to stay, he would have to have a plausible excuse for his continuing absences…

"Flanders, Cuthbert", the Gryffindors' streak was broken when the card collector was Sorted in to Ravenclaw.

It was a pity really that he had never been any good at making up stories, his father always said that the bite had sucked all the life out of him Of course he wasn't meant to hear this, it was whispered over his head when he took out a book and brought up at night time when he was meant to be in bed. Remus had never had the need to lie, he had no friends to boast to and his parents would have been able to see through any attempt at concealing the truth from them. So what could he say…?

"Happenstance, Gloria", a tall girl with blonde hair was Sorted in to Ravenclaw.

Only three more letters to go until Lupin, he felt sick…

"Jynx, Tanya", it wasn't until she bounded down to join Lily Evens at that Remus realised that she must be the girl from the station, idly he wondered where her trunk had got to.

That was it! He could be sick every month; no, that wouldn't work… Why did all the Ks and Js have to be Sorted so quickly! He silently willed the small boy sitting on the stool to be difficult, it didn't help and soon the boy was trotting over to the Hufflepuff table.

"Lupin, Remus", his hands shook, his teeth chattered and his legs wobbled but from somewhere deep inside he found the ability to take the few shaky steps up to the Hat. So intent was he on reaching his goal that he didn't notice the sudden alertness of the high table, the teachers' curious stares or Dumbledore's penetrating stare.

Within the velvety darkness of the Hat a voice spoke to Remus; afterwards he never told exactly what had passed between them but it was obvious to Dumbledore at least that during his time under the Hat's brim the boy had heard something…just what that something was he couldn't be sure. That was a secret that the Hat did not turn into a song.

Sorry this chapter took so long to get out I have had my end of term exams all of last week and then I lost my _very important notebook_, still haven't found it actually so you can blame that if some of the characters I am introducing aren't as coherent as they could be. Next chapter will be up as soon as possible and Remus and Sirius will have a little chat.

Thanks to:

Amalynne O'hara: Thanks, glad you like it, sorry that the Sirius/James thing isn't resolved yet but I needed to do Remus' sorting first, their conflict will be resolved one way or the other in their dorm, so look for an argumentative night. You poor thing by the way, I can't stand French as a language can't do the accent or spell it. I dropped it and am now doing Spanish for GCSE. CUL8r (see you later)

brennqt14: I do feel sorry for Sirius, having to deal with a family like that but if he hadn't had them he wouldn't be the Sirius we all know and love. A have an idea for a Sirius fic (pun!) that…well I won't say but it will defiantly be AU. Thanks for the great review.

marauding-siriusly: The hat saw his reckless tendencies and thought that Gryffindor would only make him more reckless, as we see later on his recklessness leads to his ultimate demise. Personally I don't think that that Hat would care what his family would think and there isn't much they can do to him right now anyway

Yoshimiwolfspaw: Thanks keep reviewing.

Rainbow26: Thanks, I smiled when I read your review, keep it up.


	10. Outcasts Together

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone; they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note

In this chapter there is something that might, just might be taken offensively by _some_ Americans, please do not be offended its not even a real sport and it is slightly depressing that I even have to write this but you know there are some funny people out there.

On the bright side this is my longest chapter yet 1,826 words exactly (word count is a wonderful thing).

It is also only six days until Christmas, I have a tidy room and it snowed yesterday so I am a very happy fanfic writer. This is primarily the reason you have got such an long chapter (long chapter, huh some writers get 4,000 out regularly in a shorter space of time then this and I am pleased) sorry that was my inner pessimist talking. Also my mood is now going down because my mum keeps calling me to ask my opinion on various articles of clothing, whether my little sister would like it, do you remember this and is this your scarf, so I have to keep getting up and…. GRRR!! Sorry, anyway enjoy the chapter and

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Sirius was becoming rapidly delusional about his new status, sure the Gryffindor's had been nice enough; there had been a few cautious smiles and some restrained welcomes but he had hoped for something more. Now he realised that he would have to prove himself before he was accepted fully, being sorted into Gryffindor was the first step but it took more then that to completely wash away the stain his family had left on him, Sirius was for the moment guilty by association.

He had accepted his status as an outcast by the time Lily Evens was Sorted, Dippet's studious avoiding of him had hammered the point home quite firmly, mind you that might not have been entirely due to his name, the boy was already making enemies with his dismissive attitude of all things Gryffindor and someone taking pleasure from avoiding their families traditional house when he hadn't been accepted into the Dippit's probably didn't endure Sirius to him.

Evens' avoidance of him didn't come as a surprise; he had tried to wake up that sleeping boy with some of Filibuster's best and then cemented her bad opinion of them by shoving her out of their carriage. He also suspected that Evens was muggleborn so the name Black wouldn't concern her he was basing this on the fact that as they were walking to Hogwarts he had overheard her asking what a Nimbus was. In Sirius' book not knowing what Quidditch was meant you either needed a long stay in one of St. Mungo's high security wards or you had been raised by muggles. Of course you could always be American, Sirius had seen a Quod match while visiting his second cousin three times removed and for once he had agreed with his Father, any nation that preferred _that_ over Quiditch had to be insane. His Father had had a different reason for thinking that though, something to do with deserting their families and everything they stood for; because of that speech Sirius had for a time entertained the notion off escaping to America but the discovery of their national game had squashed that idea. He wondered if James had ever seen a Quod game, he would have to ask him…

But he couldn't, Sirius wasn't so blind that he couldn't see the death stares James was directing in his direction, they were almost equal to the ones his darling mum tended to shoot at him if, no when, he wasn't behaving himself while they had guests. It was going to be difficult to get James to forgive him; Sirius knew that if he had been in James place, well James wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. Judging from the fatal glares the other boy was shooting him James was mad enough to start a muggle duel. He was fairly confident that he could take James in a fight if it came down to that, his ex-friend was smaller and scrawnier than him, but Sirius hoped he wouldn't have to punch James until he saw his side of the story. Hurting the guy would only reflect badly on him and…

It was ridicules really; he had managed to lose his first real friend within hour of meeting him and short of flattening him Sirius couldn't think of any way to regain it.

Another storm of clapping erupted around him, Tanya Jynx had just joined the Gryffindor table, she didn't seem to realise Sirius existed and instead ran to sit beside Lily Evens, the two girls appeared to know each other, there were several squeals at the excitement of being in the same house. Some people had all the luck, best friend in the same house…

His brooding was interrupted when amidst cheers from his new house mates Remus Lupin asked if he could sit down beside Sirius. It took a few seconds for the request to be registered, by now Sirius had accepted that he would be spending the feast in almost complete isolation and this sudden intrusion into that belief left him slightly shaken. The boy didn't go away however and when Sirius indicated the space in front of him the tawny haired boy sank down on to the bench with every sign that he intended to stay put. It was only then that Sirius realised that the boy in front of him was the "mystery sleeper of compartment 13" as James had put it despite the fact that the compartment didn't have a number and even if it did it wouldn't have been 13. In an unusual display of tact Sirius decided not to mention this; running out upon waking up was an indication of not wanting to talk that even he could spot. Instead he asked rather bitterly…

"Aren't you afraid my Blackness will rub of on you?"

Remus considered this, there were so many ways he could answer that question…

"No, I am a werewolf, aren't you afraid I'm going to bite you?"

Or…

"Shouldn't we Dark people band together against every one else."

Of course there was always…

"I turn in to a man eating monster every full moon so it isn't likely that I would be frightened by something that wouldn't happen any way."

In the end he settled for saying…

"There is an exception to every rule and judging by the fact that your in Gryffindor I think that you're the exception to the one that goes "Every Black is a mad Dark witch or wizard that deserves to be subjected to some of those really interesting Middle Age muggle torture devises.". Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Interesting rule."

"My dad made it up, he works in the Department of International Magical Co-operation, International Magical Office of Law, Use and Misuse of Muggles' and he says that any day when he _doesn't_ get a Howler or a very rude letter from a member of the Black family complaining about how he's managing things he treats his staff to lunch. So far he hasn't had to pay up once."

"That sounds like my family, my Father complains about yours at the dinner table as well, normally I just try to ignore it."

"Apparently it's rather hard to ignore ten different Howlers all yelling at once; he used to come home practically deaf until my mum made him some earmuffs to take to work. Unfortunately she was slightly annoyed with him that day, so the earmuffs are pink and fluffy. " They both smirked.

Sirius said that he could just imagine an older version of Remus working away in his office, pink and fluffy earmuffs on, Howlers from his many relations shouting away in the back ground.

The rest of the Sorting went pleasantly enough, Sirius informed Remus about Andromeda, the other exception to the rule of the Blacks and Remus entertained Sirius with the tale of the Ministry Christmas party when the Black and Lupin patriarchs came face to face for the first time.

"So my dad came home drank half a bottle of Scotch and made up the rule."

The two were so busy sniggering at the story that they were the last ones to fall silent as Dumbeldore rose to speak. It was the first time that Remus had seen Headmaster in the flesh and not in a picture; despite his long white hair and beard that spoke of his great age he had an aura of tremendous energy. For a moment his sparkling blue eyes rested on Remus then they travelled to other parts of the room.

"Welcome, pupils old and new to another year at Hogwarts in which I hope you will learn something, but first… the Feast!"

As he sat down the tables covered themselves with piles of potatoes, mountains of peas and carrots, roast meat in all shapes and sizes, food, glorious food. He began to heap his plate and Sirius copied him only he took more.

"You know you ought to leave room for pudding."

Sirius made a face at him then swallowed,

"I'll have room," he paused to ravage his chicken some more, "until to day I have never really enjoyed a meal so I plan to eat enough food to sink a ship and then some."

"Fair enough, just try not to spray all that food at me." Sirius grinned and they both got down to some serious eating.

If anything the second course was even better then the first, every conceivable dessert was laden on the groaning table; it was pity that Remus felt to full to cope with more then a bowlful of chocolate pudding, Sirius on the other hand lived up to his promise and managed to devour two bowls of the delicious chocolate pudding, several different types of ice-cream and at least five jam doughnuts. He was just polishing off the last doughnut and Remus was beginning to feel as though going to bed and collapsing for the night would be a good idea when the plates were scrubbed clean and Dumbledore got to his feet.

"Now that an excellent feast has been devoured may I bend your eats for a few moments and deliver a few start of term notices. Firstly a new tree has been added to our grounds, it is a very rare Whomping Willow and students are strongly advised to avoid coming in to contact with it or indeed going anywhere near it since, as its name suggests, it is of a violent disposition."

When Remus heard Sirius mutter "I have got to see this." he wasn't surprised.

"Secondly the Forbidden Forest is… forbidden due to the many dangers it contains, first years _and _otherstudents should be aware of this. The Quidditch season will be starting as soon as possible, if you wish to try out for your houses team see your houses captain. Also I have been told to inform you by our caretaker Mr Filch that "socialising" in broom cupboards is henceforth banned due to he need to have permanent access to his brooms."

There was an out burst of stifled sniggers at this announcement, at the High Table as well as on the house tables, and some ruby red blushes from the guilty parties. Dumbledore however continued serenely, Remus could have sworn that his eyes were exceptionally merry, ever for Dumbledore.

"Right now off to bed."

However when Remus attempted to follow the prefect that was endeavouring to gather together the scattered Gryffindor first years Professor Shadow materialized at his shoulder.

"The Headmaster wants to see you his office dear, follow me."

So he did and once again he was torn from the semblance of normality he had had during the feast and back to his life, there where some things you just can't escape and being a werewolf was one of them. He saw Sirius at the door turning to look for him and quickly hurried after the small women, glad he hadn't been seen.

Shout Outs

Rainbow26: Thanks, I am glad that I inspire you to write more.

brenngt14: Unfortunatly the Sirius fic is only in the planning stages, it won't be out any time soon, I don't think I can cope with two stories at once.

Amalynne O'hara: Plot? You want a plot now, good grief; some people can't be satisfied with what they've got. (Joke, but to be honest the only thing that is certain in this fic is the things that have been told in the books and that James and Sirius will battle it out in the next chapter). I do think that Sirius getting into Gryffindor is shocking, especially since the school has been treated to about six years of Narcissia who has probably been boasting that nobody in her family has ever been in Gryffindor. I have read some fics that have James and Co. taking practically no notice of the name and I just haven't been convinced. I actually have no idea what that last sentence was to I really can't reply to it, my best friend also has French Grandparents, she is even worse at French then me so her conversations with them consist of "Um, what was that?"

READ

skittles-07: It was due to this review that I have not updated my summary, if it brings humour to someone's life it is worth keeping. I am sorry skittles-07 won't be reading the story but if you are looking in Thanks for the bump.

marauding-siriusly: This chapter is much longer, just for you. I really am just winging the characters, going with my gut feeling, during the last few chapters several main characters have changed dramatically to suit the story but I am trying to write the main characters by what we know.

Felicity 14: The ingenious way will become apparent in the next chapter but don't worry they don't curse or punch each other.

YoshimiWolfspaw: Will do!

elsa-writer: Hello stranger! It was quite funny I reviewed your story and came back to find a lovely review from you here, just goes to show…something.


	11. It's Just Another Manic Monday

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone; they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note

Happy belated New Year to all my lovely reviewers, unfortunately my holiday spirit is dampened slightly by the fact that I am due to return to school on Thursday and I haven't done my Chemistry evaluation that is due in for Friday. School…

Any way enjoy this chapter while I slave away, see you!

It's Just Another Manic Monday

Peter was lost and he wasn't quite sure how it had happened; he had been following the others down to breakfast, when Peeves the Poltergeist had shown up in the form of an enormous suit of armour and started chasing them with an axe the size of a, a, a very big axe. Surprisingly enough the sheer terror he had, very sensibly felt was only shared by "that idiot boy who wanted to be in Huffelpuff" Merridock; Remus Lupin hadn't even seemed to realise the danger an _extremely_ sharp axe posed to him and James and Black had treated it as a) a huge joke and b) a chance to cause serious bodily harm to the other boy.

Eventually of course they had started to run, insulting Peeves and trying to lure him towards the other boy at the same time but still running; Remus Lupin however had been so fascinated by the whole concept of poltergeist activity that the much realer concept of "There is a big axe that is going to chop your head off" hadn't quite registered. James and Black had had to run back to save him, now this was great…until they remembered their position as mortal enemies.

Looking back on what had happened from the relative safety of the corridor it had been very funny; the two boys had engaged in a kind of tug-of-war using Remus as the rope, shouting, running and dodging the wild swings Peeves was making with the axe all the while. Their rather hilarious situation had come to its comical conclusion when they reached a crossroads; instead of following Peter and Merridock (who had run straight on until they had collapsed by the statue of a wizened old wizard) they had turned and tried to run in the opposite direction to the boy on the other end of the trio. This had resulted in a moment of tension during which each boy had strained to reassert control over the group, Remus' arms had looked like they might pop out of their sockets and a pained expression had appeared on his face. The struggle for supremacy had ended quite quickly when the axe Peeves had been wielding with such ferocity found its target, Remus' head.

It was fortunate, thought Peter that the axe had been made out of rubber, so the only injuries the trio had sustained were bumps and bruises from their sudden contact with the stone floor after the surprise of being hit by a rubber axe had rendered Remus incapable of remaining on his feet. Peter had been quite startled himself, the Merridock and him had been running back shouting warnings when Peeves had struck and in the excitement of Remus not becoming something resembling a banana split he had tripped and hit his head.

Thus the only two things he remembered about the chaos that followed was Black swearing a lot and Severus Snape, the hook nosed kid Remus had saved him from turning up shouting something about informing the teachers. Peter presumed that they had split of after that because he came to his senses alone in some corridor he had never seen before in his life.

Peter considered this to be just his luck, the rest of the school was probably stuffing their faces with breakfast at this very moment and he was going to miss it because of some stupid pretend ghost. Admittedly before Peeves had arrived they had been lost, due to James' need to be independent from the older years and his desperate wish to impress Lily Evens with his bravery.

The feast last night had been made very entertaining because of this want; between shooting dark glares at Remus and Black chatting away he had attempted to engage Lily in witty conversation. Despite what Tanya Jynx had said Peter firmly believed that James had deliberately made a colossal fool of himself to entertain the table; how could someone so brilliant and funny go to pieces over some girl that didn't even like him. It was beyond Peter.

The thought that Peeves interruption probably hadn't made a difference to the time taken to get to breakfast consoled Peter somewhat, but not much, being lost together is much better then being lost by yourself.

He found the Great Hall after he ran through a headless horseman, who agreed to direct him to the Hall after Peter promised to find and burn a polo ball for him.

Peter rejoined his friends at the Gryffindor table, he was just about to tell them about the promise he had made to the ghost and too pled for their help with his quest to find a polo ball, whatever that was, when the post arrived. Since a whole flock of owls arriving at once tends to distract the most avid of listeners and Peter had to admit that James seemed to be more interested in his porridge-with-honey then in his friend's story, he decided to keep quiet until they had gone away.

Idly he stared up at the owls, wondering whether his mum would be sending him anything and hoping that she hadn't sent him that "jumper" (in Peter's opinion it couldn't be called a jumper, his Aunt May had made for him and she couldn't knit any thing that didn't look like it was made for a rather large octopus with two heads) that he had taken out of his trunk and hidden in a pot plant at the back of the garden shed. It would probably arrive with a note saying something like…

"Darling, I hope you are settling in nicely. I found this last night in the strangest place, Merlin knows how it got there but I thought I better send it to you since you like Aunty May's jumpers so much and they are very good for keeping out the cold.

Love Mummy"

Yes, that would be something she would do, send him something that would embarrass him in front of the whole table and honestly believe that he would be glad to have it with him.

Thankfully his mum's barn owl didn't appear with a very lumpy package in fact it didn't appear at all, in a way Peter was disappointed at least the jumper would have showed she cared instead there was nothing, even Black was getting more letters then him.

In fact Black was getting more owls then anyone else in the school and he didn't look to happy about it.

"James, why do you think Blacks getting all that mail?" Peter asked James

"Don't know, don't care but I hope someone's sent him some Wartcap Powder or something like that." He answered transferring his frown from the offending boy to his porridge.

"I think someone might have…"

"What, really!" James looked much happier all of a sudden and began looking wildly around as if the culprit would be holding up a sign saying "I send people nasty things".

"It's just the Slytherins seem really interested in him and his letters, they keep pointing at him then laughing their heads off." James sneaked a discreet look over his shoulder at the Slytherin table.

"I wouldn't say that smirking a lot and looking in his direction counts as pointing and howling with laughter but, yeah, they certainly seem to be doing a lot of whatever it is they're doing." He considered the problem while finishing his porridge and Peter followed James' example by continuing with his scrambled eggs on toast.

Their peaceful meal was interrupted when a large tawny owl with a disdainful expression dropped yet another letter on Blacks plate. Besides noting the passage of the owl over his head Peter gave it not thought but James saw something else…

"Peter look, Black's got a Howler!" Peter barely had time to cover his ears before the piercing shrieks of a woman that must have been Blacks mother filled the Great Hall.

"GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! FILTHY CHILD, HOW COULD YOU DISGRACE AND BESPOIL THE NAME OF YOUR ANCESTORS. SHAME OF MY FLESH. MISERABLE LITTLE CREATURE CONSORTING WITH FILTH AND CREATURES LOWER THEN VERMIN, _MUDBLOODS_ THE LOT OF THEM. YOU ARE A WORTHLESS PIECE OF DRAGON DUNG, DELIBERATLY DEFYING EVERYTHING WE HAVE TAUGHT YOU, EVERY THING THAT YOU SHOULD BE FOR THE FALSE LIES THAT BLOOD TRAITORS LIKE DUMBELDORE EDIFY. YOUR FATHER IS WRITING TO COMPLAIN AND YOU ARE TO BEG FOR IMMEDIATE RE-SORTMENT INTO SLYTHERIN OR BELIEVE ME WE WILL MAKE YOU. IT WAS A MISTAKE NOT TO SEND YOU TO DURMSTRANG AND WE WILL RECTIFY THAT IF NEED BE. THAT SCHOOL HAS GONE TO THE FLOBBERWORMS UNDER THAT DECREPID, MUDBLOOD LOVING BLOOD TRAITOR; HE IGNORES ALL THE OLD WAYS AND DISCREDITS THOSE WHO DON'T WITH FOUL SLANDER. IF YOU DARE GO DOWN THAT ROUTE YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE LIFE WILL NOT BE WORTH LIVING, I WILL MAKE SURE OF IT. REMEMBER ONE WRONG STEP AND YOU WILL BE COMING BACK HOME FASTER THEN YOU CAN SAY SLYTHERIN, NOT THAT YOU WOULD, ABOMINATION UPON YOUR FAMILY. ALSO, DON'T EVEN TRY TO WEASEL OUT OF COMING HOME THIS HOLIDAY REVOLTING INSIGNIFICANT MUDBLOOD LOVING WASTE OF SPACE THAT YOU ARE, YOU AND I NEED TO HAVE A LITTLE TALK."

The Great Hall echoed with the Black woman's screams as the bright red envelope exploded and crumbled to dust under the intense stares of almost the entire population of Hogwarts. Black however seemed unaware if this, his expression was blank or at least unreadable as he sat their but even Peter from his position half a table away could see him shaking. A few shouts of laughter from the Slitherin's side of the room fell like stones in to a pool of silence so deep that even laughter, the great icebreaker couldn't disturb the tension surrounding Black and the smouldering remains of his letter.

Shout Outs

Amalynne O'hara: I'm blushing, what a great review, I do like my "Understated humour" and am always glad when people notice it, half the time they don't though, I was really pleased with James' story about his dad and the car and no one picked up on it. Ah well. How can you prefer Quod to Quiditch I mean come one interesting idea but nothing to the excitement of Quiditch to quote Ron "What's so exciting about a sport with only one ball" (this is a joke by the way) but seriously Quiditch so much better. Have I reviewed the next chapter of your story? My small brain cannot cope with all this demand for my reviews.

Woodland-Dew: I agree with every thing you said in your brutally truthful review. One of the reasons not much is happening is because I do quite short chapters where I focus on one event and I add this to that event to reach my deadline of 1000 words so quite often not much happens; does that make any sense to you? I tried to give this chapter a slight cliff-hanger review and tell me what you think but I am sure it is pretty pathetic. Also any ideas for future chapters would be much appreciated, I have only a vague idea for what happens in their first year and I do realise I am not meant to tell you that.

brennqt14: The offensive part was the comment Sirius made about Americans and their game of choice in the magic world, Quod. I see Remus and Sirius as good friends but you have to realise that the only times when they are best friends is when James is out of the picture as soon as James makes up with Sirius James is Sirius' best friend. That's the way it is.

YoshimiWolfspaw: Thanks!

elsawriter: Glad to see you are reviewing regularly again, sorry if this is being nosy but what happened? You don't have to answer just curious. Glad you liked Remus I think it's the kind of thing he would do since he has to hold so much in, it will be in some ways a great relief when they finally find out.

marauding-siriusly: I think that America as a nation is slightly insane but when you get them on their own some of the nicest people in the world. Anyway "Great genius does not come without slight insanity" or something like that.

Dazzling Dame: You are comparing me to the best Marauder writer of them all, the most magnificent Mordred, thank you so much, personally I think both of those writers are better than me but then if you think differently more power to you! I would love to be in your C2 and I would also love to be a staff member, there is just the slight problem of the fact thatI have no idea what they are or what I would have to do. Review and tell me. If you want me to review your stories you will have to be logged on, I cannot operate the ffn search engine to save my life. Thank you for the compliment about the OC's sometimes it is really difficult, especially the Gryffindor's because I know so much about them and I would love to tell you about them but then I have a quick look at how JKR does it and I calm myself down. The OC's are going to appear quite a bit but they will mostly be background characters like Lavender or Dean. Thank you again for the great review I hope that this chapter meets with your satisfaction.

taylor: Wish granted.


	12. A Lesson Learnt

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone; they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note

I am so sorry, that is all I can say, this chapter should have been up two weeks ago but somehow it just didn't happen, I had a birthday on Wednesday last week and my friends threw me a birthday party so I had to socialise and invite people over so no time to write. I am sorry but I do hope that this chapter satisfies you.

Family And Friends

As the echo's died away all James could hear was a curious ringing in his ears and it wasn't from Mrs Black's speech, he was very, very angry; when Siri…Black had first received his Howler James had been gloating, here was his ex-friends payment for lying to him, for staging a ridiculous fake fight to make James like him then stabbing him in the back by turning out to be a dirty, rotten, good for nothing, scheming prat like the rest of the Black family. What was worse was that James had fallen for his act; he had truly believed that he had found his first Hogwarts friend; when he had first found out, in those few awful minutes between the Black name being called out and Sirius being Sorted, he had been sure that it had been a Slytherin plot and that they were probably laughing their heads off about it. Then Sirius had been Sorted into Gryffindor and the world was turned upside-down.

That wasn't meant to happen, James had never heard of a Black being Sorted into Gryffindor, even Ravenclaw was unusual and the Blacks always said that it was just because the person read to much; it had been strange, James' first though had been "Poor Sirius", then he had remembered that he was mad at Black. Just because the Sorting Hat had made a mistake didn't mean he hadn't been lied to, if he really belonged in Gryffindor he would have told James his name out right and damn the consequences. James had just seen Black thrown out a carriage; he _would_ have accepted him, if he had just explained.

James had to admit that the theory of a Slytherin plot sort of fell through after the Sorting, but the fight that had begun the moment they had entered their dormitory was proof that a Potter and a Black could never be friends. At least that was what James had thought as he lay in bed pretending to sleep but no in the cold light of day he wasn't so sure, if Sirius' mother was as bad as she sounded then his home life must have been a nightmare; if James had had that voice for a mother he would have wanted to rebel. Since it was obvious that his family didn't approve, wouldn't befriending Sirius be one in the eye for the Black clan and wasn't that what he had been brought up to do? He was meant to deify the Dark families in any way he could and having Black for a friend would certainly be interesting…Oh what the heck, James knew that he liked Sirius and to get back his friend all he had to do was…

His decision made James marched got up from his seat and in the resounding quiet that the letter had generated, marched up the aisle towards Sirius who was still sitting staring at the ashen remains of his mother's disapproval, strangely enough he didn't look to fussed about the condemnation he had just endured, indeed he seemed to find the whole situation hysterically funny, he was wearing a stunned grin and was chuckling slightly.

James came to a stop behind Sirius and tapped him on his shoulder, Sirius spun round quickly but his grin faded when he saw James. Undeterred by his less then enthusiastic reception James stuck out his hand,

"Congratulations on getting in to Gryffindor," Sirius' wary look disappeared, to be replaced with a hesitant smile and when James made no attempt to withdraw his hand his face was transformed by a huge grin. He swung round and almost leapt out of his seat, grabbing James' hand in a strong handshake he said in a carrying voice,

"Thank-you, I am _very_ glad to be here!"

James didn't know who it was that started clapping, it might have been the Jynx girl or one of the Bones family, it might even have been the enthusiastic Prefect that had escorted them to the Gryffindor common room the night before; who ever it was didn't matter though because soon the whole table was cheering or coming up to congratulate Sirius. It was as though people had just realised that the Sorting had been "one in the eye for Slytherin". The Slytherin table certainly didn't seem to pleased at all the attention Sirius was receiving as many of the Gryffindors pointed out to the grinning pair of black haired boys.

James was quite startled when a small, frail looking Ravenclaw girl with spider web black hair came over, after the throng of Gryffindors had dispersed back to their meals, to talk quietly to Sirius.

"Well done," she said softly as she slid smoothly in to the seat next to Sirius "I was worried that…"

"Don't worry, you'll get wrinkles," he turned to James who was feeling quite puzzled "Andromeda, this is James my best friend, James this is Andromeda, my favourite cousin and co-conspirator."

A pale, fragile hand was extended in his direction and James shook it gently, she smiled at him, her grey eyes that looked almost exactly like Sirius' sparkled softly at him.

"Thanks, for helping him." she said sincerely. James, embarrassed let go of her hand and muttered something about it not being a problem.

"Still, thank you, he needs someone to look after him."

Sirius made a face and said that he could look after himself; Andromeda however said that it was easier to look after yourself if there was someone watching your back and James seeing the nasty glances a small group of Slytherins were sending their way had to agree with her.

Fortunately apart from snide comments in the corridors, James and Sirius were left pretty much alone by Sirius' Slytherin family for which James at least was thankful, as much as he would have enjoyed a scrap with the enemy the first week was not the time, he was much more interested in impressing the staff by doing as well as he could in their lessons.. He explained this wish to an incredulous Sirius as they walked along a corridor to what they hoped would be the Charms class room; the theory went something like this:

If you are respectful, helpful and do as well as you possibly can in the first few weeks of term the teachers will be blinded by this persona for the rest of their time at school, this will make it easier to cause trouble and get away with it, also the first weeks are vital for gathering as much information as possible about the staff and their lessons and this is hard to do if the professor is breathing down your neck for most of the lesson.

Sirius agreed to follow James' lead on the matter since the idea seemed to be a good one; of course, he added, if it meant that he had to hand his homework in on time he would have to reconsider. James never got the chance to answer or joke about his friends question because the classroom they had been hoping would be the Charms classroom turned out to be Professor McGonagall's NEWT Transfiguration class of seventh years, unfortunately they were in the middle of a start of year test involving very advanced human transfiguration and two first years barging noisily in on them caused at least two of them two bungle it up, creating some very interesting human/toad hybrids. Not surprisingly the professor and her class were not pleased to see them and it was only because of James' frantic apologising that they escaped without points being taken, they might have continued wandering around the school if not for the kindness of a amused Hufflepuff with curly blonde hair who took pity on them and whispered to them the quickest way to get to the Charms classroom as they were beating a hasty retreat.

They arrived at Charms ten minutes late with aching legs and breathless lungs; fortunately Professor Flitwick was sympathetic and merely told them to take their seats at the front of the class. Under the glare of Lily Evens scornful eyes they trudged up to the front of the classroom where they flopped into the seats beside the girl with blonde pigtails and a tearstained face, according to Kamilah White the girl had been up the whole night crying and no one had been able to help her because she couldn't speak a word of English! This had provoked a discussion about why she was at Hogwarts but the few theories they had come up with were pitiful to say the least.

Professor Flitwick spent the rest of the lesson giving demonstrations of the Charms they would be performing in their first year and telling them how important pronunciation was. He told them stories of the terrible things that could go wrong if you didn't say each syllable of the spell exactly as it was designed to be said, sadly Sirius was not able to convince him to conjure up a buffalo to illustrate exactly what he meant but as Remus said later you can't have every thing in life.

Transfiguration was, as Professor McGonagall the stern head of Gryffindor house had said, the most difficult subject taught at Hogwarts, he had spent all of her lesson trying to make his matchstick turn in to a needle and the stupid thing had only go slightly pointy. True this had been better then most of the class's attempts, the only other person that had made any change to their matchstick had been Sirius who's matchstick had formed a small dent when the eye in a needle should be. Despite his lack of results and the huge amount of complicated notes they had to copy down off the board James had enjoyed Transfiguration, though he felt that McGonagall needed to lighten up a bit, she had been the first teacher to give them homework.

History of Magic was boring there was nothing more to it; the only ghost professor at Hogwarts droned on and on about goblin wars in a voice like a broken down muggle vacuum cleaner boring the entire class into a stupefied doze, even the most dedicated history student fell prey to his soporific mutter and James had never seen any point in learning the names of goblin leaders even when his father had been telling him about them.

Potions was completely different to what he had expected it to be, even his mother who was probably the most relaxed person James knew turned serious and precise when confronted with a cauldron, Professor Arbuckle however was slapdash, vague, careless and quite frankly dangerous to be around. She had stumbled into the classroom looking as if she had just emerged from an explosion in a firework factory, her face was covered in soot, her greying hair stood on end and her robes were covered with burnt patches and strange coloured spills; their introduction to Potions had been the professor throwing open the cupboard, hurling potion ingredients at them then shouting "RIGHT LETS SEE WHAT YOU MAKE WITH THAT LOT". The class, which was a mixture of Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws, shocked into stillness for a moment, then gradually the first years began to stir themselves, some of the more sensible ones opened books and started looking up ingredients but the more open minded, curious or just plain stupid people among the class that threw random ingredients in and waited to see what happened. By the end of the lesson the classroom was in chaos, almost every possible thing that could have gone wrong had gone wrong, every cauldron held something different, brown sludge that ate pencils, bright blue runny potions that sloshed on to shoes, brick red, lumpy yellow it was amazing how many potions could be made with the ingredients provided. Most of them it was true didn't do anything remotely useful, but Karen Cokelwick received five points to Ravenclaw for her perfect batch of hair dye and James and Sirius managed to concoct one that puffed out perfectly formed radishes every five minutes. Not all of the potions were harmless either, although Remus Lupin had been one of the few people to follow a recipe it was generally agreed that his potion was a complete failure, at the end of the lesson instead of the bogy, green wart remover it was meant to be it had turned grey and stuck to the bottom of his cauldron.

The only lesson that James defiantly did not like was Herbology, any subject where you were forced to prune things was almost by definition to much like hard work, but the main reason that James disliked the subject was that they had Herbology with the Slytherins. This meant that the spent the entire lesson being insulted while they tried to prune and pelted with dirt and leaf clippings every time they had to go to the compost heap. It was on one of these trips that James decided to take action; he dumped the entire contents of his rubbish bag on the head of Severus Snape, a greasy haired boy that Sirius had pointed out to him as being "up to his ears in Dark magic". The trick worked better then he had thought it would, Snape, temporarily blinded by the clippings stumbled right in to the compost heaps gaping maw, the heap chewed thoughtfully a few times, as though trying to determine exactly what this new food was then, disgusted, it spit Snape out along with some half digested dead plants. James splitting his sides with suppressed laughter quit the scene of the crime, but the sight of Snape sitting amid the sloppy remains of a compost heaps meal with a rather dazed look on his face was one of the best moments of his first week.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was different...

Shout outs

brennQT: I qiute agree, Sirius doesn't deserve any of the things thatare going to happen to him. I am glad yo found my Preeves funny, I can understand how you were confused my writing style confuses my English teacher sometimes, unfourtunatly that means I get bad marks untill I explian just what I was trying to convey. Thanks.

marauding-siriusly: I do have more incentive to write unfourtunatly real life tends to get in the way. Origianly the axe was real but then I thought for a bit and decided that it was too dangourous even for Peeves and I got a kick out of making you think that Remus' head was going to roll.

Amalynne O'hara: Sorry my updates are so bad, Mrs Black is an awful, foul woman andI found it really difficult to write her speech since i didn't have the 5th book to compare it with.Anyway glad you liked it.

elsawriter: I am just glad to have you back. Peter will not be changing for quite some time he is only eleven so he has a long way to go before he betrays James and Lily, I do like haveing chapters from his perspective, it keeps it balenced. Yes I am English but I go to school in Scotland.

Dazzling Dame: Thanks again for the honer, I don't seem to be able toadd stories to the comunity yet, is there a problem? Your best friend is welcome to read it and i hope that they like it, you are lucky having friends that share thesame love of the books no one I now does and they all think that I am very wierd sitting on the computer discussing it. You flater me though i am definatly not up to JKR standerd except maybe inthe lenght of time it takes me to update.

SnufflestheInsane: Thanks for your two very enthusiastic reviews and I am sorry that I haven't updated sooner. I have a good plot? Most people complain that they can't see any plot. Sorr that my spelling sucks I will chabge it.. at some point.


	13. Lookback

**Just Kids**

A Marauders Fic

Summary 

Their lives will shape the fate of the world, magic and muggle. They will help drive back the darkness, their names will be known to everyone; they will be loved and hated in turn. Not quite yet though, right now…they're just kids.

Disclaimer 

You are gullible if you believe the following:

That the word gullible has been taken out of the dictionary.

&

That I am our beloved JKR. I'm not; I don't own the rights to the Harry Potter books or any of the characters in them. I am not making any money out of this so please don't sue. Since I don't have much money you wouldn't get much out of me anyway.

Authors Note

I dislike this chapter, at first I couldn't write Shadow, then I got depressed and gave up for a bit, then… Anyway, in my eyes this is a disappointing chapter, especially since it took so long to write, I am sorry that you had to wait so long for such meagre fare. Thanks for your support, the next chapter should be better.

On the plus side, I have livejournal, I will be posting the chapters of this story and some other random scribblings that I feel will be interesting.

Lookback

It was Wednesday before the first years had to brave Professor Shadow's classroom; it was one of those strange September days that seem to be harking back to a forgotten summer, the sun shone brightly down from a cloudless sky and the wind (which had been blowing steadily for the past three days) had dropped down to a refreshing breeze that barely ruffled the surface of the lake. It was not a day that lent itself to the absorption of new knowledge, Remus knew for a fact that Lily Evens had spent most of the Transifguration class doodling small flowers on her parchment and he guessed that the rest of the class had been similarly occupied. He had been trying to concentrate on the proper way to transfigure a matchstick but the window next to him had beckoned him with soft beams of sunlight and tempted him with heady scents, as the lesson progressed he had had found it harder and harder to draw himself away from the attractions of the out doors and when they had finally been let out he was all to willing to join in the rush for the doors.

It was with considerable reluctance that the class trudged up to the Defence Classroom, even though most of them had been looking forward to this class since term began (as Tanya Jynx had put it "It's the class where your encouraged to learn some seriously cool curses, who wouldn't want to go?") but holding a lesson on the _Dark _Arts when the grounds were seeped in sunshine seemed strange. To learn _anything_ on such a wonderful day was an unwelcome concept and being reminded of the horrors that might someday attack you when the only thing on your mind was lunch or returning to the sun drenched grounds just didn't feel right.

That wasn't the only reason why Remus was dreading Defence Against the Dark Arts though, he had skimmed through the set text out of curiosity and he had nearly had a heart attack when he was confronted by the title "Werewolves, The Whys and The Wherefores". It seemed naïve now that he looked back on it but until then he hadn't realised, hadn't _wanted _to realise that at some point in his school career there would be a class on werewolves…

He had been seriously depressed for the rest of the day, fortunately his mother had managed to convince him that the average pre-pubescent boy barely noticed that the sky was blue; connecting the signs of a werewolf with his friend Remus Lupin's monthly disappearances would almost certainly be beyond almost all of his class-mates' abilities.

He firmly squashed his doubts before he entered the classroom; he wanted to impress Professor Shadow, after all according to rumour she was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Hogwarts had ever had, mind you only the oldest former student could remember a time when she hadn't been a Professor. Despite this she was a complete mystery to most of the students; she was head of no house, ran no after school clubs and was invisible for most of the day, it was practically impossible to get to know her. Of course there were rumours, that was the trouble, there were so many rumours, she had been to school with Dumbledore, she had been brought up by Demiguise, her skin was made from a Demiguise pelt, she had been an Auror, she had been a spy, she had killed hundreds of Dark Beasts with her bare hand when her wand made of dragon scales, powdered manticore hoof and a hair from the mane of a Thestral had broken. There were even more farfetched rumours floating through the halls of Hogwarts, some people seemed to think that she was a giant in disguise, but the people who thought that tended to be the kind of people that stare several inches away from your left ear while telling you that they have discovered a strange species of bat that lives under the toenails of people who wear a certain type of socks.

However there was one thing that everyone agreed on, you would remember the first lesson she ever gave you for the rest of your life.

There was no one sitting at the desk at the front when they came in, despite this they filed into their desks silently, one week in the castle had given them a slight paranoia about supposedly empty places, Shadow had a nasty habit of turning up right behind you at the most inconvenient times. Anyway by now there was no need to disuse who would sit with who or even where they would sit, Sirius would head for the back and James would follow him after an unsuccessful attempt to sit next to Lily Evens, who would hurriedly gesture for Tanya Jynx to join her in the pair of desks as far away from the boys as possible, on the other hand Peter delighted in being as close to his hero's as possible, this generally meant sitting in front of them and nudging Remus when they said something funny, Dippet, the boy who wanted to be in Hufflepuff sat at the front of the class with the German girl who cried all the time and Kamilah White and Mary Marsh would turn up about five minutes late and slide in to the last available seats.

For once though they turned up on time, but Remus barely noticed their arrival, he was too busy staring at the desk at the front of the classroom. In itself it was quite an ordinary desk made of a slivery sort of wood that might have been pine but the bowl sitting on it was anything but ordinary. Strange runes were carved around the edge of the thick stone basin, they might have been Norse but Remus doubted it, he had seen Norse runes on a stone tablet in his Granny's sitting room and there were quite a few differences… But it wasn't the runes that had caught his attention; the slivery substance in the bowl fascinated him, it was as though light had been caught and sieved through clouds, as though mercury had been mixed with air, it was entrancing, hypnotising… He wanted to know what it felt like, what it did, why did it move as though wind whistled thorough it?

One of the small beams of radiance that reflected from it caught in his eyes making him blink and in the split second when his eyes were closed Professor Shadow materialized behind the desk. She was sitting quite calmly and appeared not to notice there jumps of surprise when she became visible, instead she got to her feet and turned to address the class.

"The bowl before you is a Pensive, it is going to aid me in teaching you the most important lesson you will ever learn in your life. Can anyone tell me what a Pensive does?"

Her question was greeted by silence and blank stares; she nodded and continued with her speech.

"A Pensive is quite simply a place to store memories, at this point you do not need to know how it does this or the various ways in which memories can be viewed, this is not a lesson on Pensives. Indeed this is not a lesson that is normally associated with school, in the normal course of things most of you would never learn it and I would pity the ones who did…"

Remus felt very confused. He was not the only one either, Kamilah White and Mary Marsh were exchanging baffled looks, Peter kept blinking and he could practically feel James and Sirius shrugging their shoulders and rolling their eyes at each other. Shadow didn't appear to notice her pupils' lack of understanding; she had turned away and was doing something to the Pensive with her wand, it seemed to involve a lot of prodding and muttering.

Finally she turned back to the class.

"Come on up here all of you," when she saw their dubious expressions she sighed, "don't worry it won't hurt you, gather round." She beckoned them up until they were all standing in a rough circle around her desk.

"Now, reach out one finger to the Pensive, as if you were about to touch it, no Mr Potter I did not say to touch it, wait until I tell you to. Is everyone ready?" At their nods of assent she reached out with her wand and gave the substance in the Pensive one last poke. Immediately the surface settled, forming a picture that looked so real it was as though Remus was looking down a hole, he could see what seemed to be a clearing in a forest, there was a large bonfire in the centre of glade, its smoke clouded Remus' view of the rest of the clearing, he couldn't see whether the shadows that flickered across the surface of thebowl were real…or imagined.

"What on earth?" whispered Lilly Evens from somewhere behind his left ear.

"Isn't this exciting." said James, who seemed to have taken up residence in Remus' hair.

"Humph." answered Lily.

"Quiet children," admonished Professor Shadow "Now every one reach out and touch the substance in the Pensive, don't jostle each other."

Hesitantly Remus reached out and as soon as his finger touched the almost liquid he was plunged forward; in to a world that was the stuff of nightmares.

Re

brennQT: She does seem very frail, doesn't she, ah well just one way of portraying her, we know so little about her and so I decided to change the commonly held view of her slightly. She isn't another Tonks, she is her own person,she may seem frail on the surface but believe me she does have a streak of fire in her that will come out later. Sorry you don't see much of DADA in this chapter, any guesses what she is going to show them? Sirius and James being friends is great,they are so much fun towrite.

Reader4ever: Wow, you reviewed every chapter, thank you so much for taking the time to do that. And thanks for the birthday wishes. I have a small confession to make about that scene, it was inspired by a very good story based on the start of the Marauders school days, from Sirius' point of view, really good, unfortunatly I can't find the link.

marauding-siriusly: It always annoys me when the potions classes in the days of MWPP have horrible teachers, it just seems unrealistic, unfortunatly I have never had a class like that, but wouldn't it be great if you did.

Amalynne O'hara: If anything I'm the witch for not updating properly, forget it. Thank you so much for the compilments, it means a lot to me, I have been looking back on my old chapters and I keep thinking, did I really write like that? It's a wonder people even stoped to review. James...probably prefers Transfigeration, he is better at it after all.

Dazzling Dame: Sirius and Andromeda have a really intersting relationship, that I hope to expand on in future chapters.

anonymous: Thanks, glad you like it.

The Roaming Gnome Named Fuzio: Wow what a big review, and so complimentery, but believe me I am not the best writer here, check out Mordred's MWPPfic if you want to se true brillience but hey I am flettered. I don't thinkI have the dedication to become a writer, you see how I stop updating this? I would never finish it!


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